IPO

They stop seating for brunch around 12:45PM. Luckily on our last day in Chitown, we were able to be seated at the bar of the hotel since we just missed the cutoff time.
The travelzoo coupon was definitely worth it. The four of us each got a cocktail and any entrée on the menu. Nothing my friends got was worth remembering… some awkward looking pasta, a bland lobster benedict, and mediocre huevos rancheros. On the other hand, I got the crab cake sandwich which was amazing. Perfectly balanced, crispy and soft, with the house fries.
Although the meal was meh, Jacob, the bartender at the W, was awesome. I actually felt bad for the guy since my friends were making complete idiots of themselves getting wasted during breakfast… so thanks for dealing with us, Jacob! While that deserves another review in itself, IPO is an OK place for breakfast if you have the deal from travelzoo.

I’ve been here a few times for lunch and once now for brunch. It’s $$$ and the service is pretty slow. But lunch has always been tasty and satisfying. Brunch may be my new fave thing though. Got the travelzoo voucher for $ 35 brunch for two — 2 entrees, 2 bloodys. Service was INCREDIBLY SLOW but the brunch was well worth the wait. The crab cake sandwich was super duper good. It came with grapefruit slices and coleslaw on the crab cake nestled between a buttery bun. ½ way through, I ditched the bun and just ate the crab cake and I was happy I made that wise decision. Scrumptious cake.
Husbo had the lobster benedict and, again, scrumptious.
I ordered the b sprouts as well and LOVED them.
I wouldn’t come here without the voucher as it is a little over my brunch budget but it was so good I might bend a little on the weekend.
3 stars because of the slow service and $$$.

I had the seared potato gnocchi. It was edible but that’s it. There was nothing special about it. I had the wings. They stink. Don’t eat here.

My date and I had a fantastic brunch experience at IPO. We arrived on a Sunday morning with a travelzoo coupon in hand. We knew we both wanted the lobster claw benedict, so we both ordered that and a few sides/​drink. Everything was delicious. When the bill came around the server took off more food than he needed to! I really appreciated that gesture and shows what high class this place has. I’d definitely recommend going!

I went to breakfast here and got the omelet! I had mine with bacon, peppers and potatoes. Great service and it was on of the best inlets I have had! The used real strip of bacon instead of the bacon crumbles, which I what I am used to!

Walked up to the hostess stand asked for a table of three, the hostess on duty gave us an eye-​roll type stare and walked us to a table without ever saying a word — maybe (or positively) one of the worst host greetings I’ve ever had. Our server was better, but the food was just okay and my order came out wrong. I wouldn’t come back.

My bf says «don’t go to restaurants attached to pretentious hotels because it’s meant to serve over-​priced mediocre food to people who don’t really care since they are expensing it anyway.» And for once he was right.
I went there with my bf as we both work in finance and appreciated the finance reference in their name (IPO = initial public offering, the first time a company sells stocks to the general public).
The décor was pretty on point, which is also the reason why I picked it. It always looked so nice when I walked by.
The food, however, was a huge disappointment. I don’t know what to say other than «wannabe molecular cuisine.» They used huge plates for a tiny amount of food that’s neither good quality nor very tasty. I didn’t even find the decorations very aesthetically appealing for how hard they are trying. Yet their prices were on par with most one-​star michelin star restaurants who can offer a much better experience.
We spent about $ 150 for a meal for two and walked out still hungry and dissatisfied. Good thing there’s a good old Chipotle by where we live to sooth our nerves.

Had dinner on a Friday night. It was a beautiful night out, which is the reason the place was completely empty per the staff. We were seated in the bar area, its attached to the W hotel. We were offered full dinner menus and the bar menu.
The drinks were all pretty good.
We started w the truffle fries, and the cheese platter.
We had the salmon, mushroom sliders which are actually kind of spicy.
The parpadelle pasta lacked some serious salt. overall the food was ok, but wow the service sucked!
The waitperson took our drink orders and it took 20 minutes to even get the first cocktails. Then she took three people’s food orders, and said she could not remember them, and would be back .20 minutes later, the food came out, just as the others could order their food.
I asked the bartender if we could get help. He actually said the server «was awful» and offered to help us.
We weren’t in a super rush, but I really think the service is pretty bad. the food is a 3 star though. Probably good for a quick lunch. would not have dinner here again!

I kind of shy away from hotel restaurants because my assumption is that people eat there out of convenience and not so much because it’s tasty. This place was pretty good. It’s certainly swanky, and has a good ambiance that doesn’t make it seem to formal or business like. My coworkers and I came here for a birthday lunch and I had the chicken sandwich/​burger with a side salad. I enjoyed both very much. The chicken burger/​sandwich was huge. I think I paid my money’s worth in meat, which I am very appreciative of. I hate when I get small portions of something. Our service was very friendly and prompt, and our food came out relatively quickly. The prices are what they are for downtown.

The food was OK, but the host acted like she was doing us a favor letting us eat there. In general the service was slow.

Place is good just for business lunch. Food is also not the greatest. Tried mussels –too fatty and spicy with very big ciabatta pieces. Salmon was regular — don’t really feel some special work from their executive chef, and mostly everything overpriced. Scallops and grilled bread were good though.

I think IPO stands for «I’m Pissed Off» because this place is the worst!
We were in Chicago doing the whole tourist experience and stopped in here for supper.
Started the meal with a Diet Coke, which arrived warm and flat, with no ice. I’m not sure how you can mess up a diet coke, but it was downhill from there. No refills on soft drinks, not that we wanted more warm, flat drinks.
The restaurant was (understandably) empty but our service was still extremely slow. The waiter forgot to put in one person’s order. The food was horrible, bland, dry and tasteless. Like tiny portions of cardboard, only cardboard would have been an improvement.
The food and service were so bad we thought we were being pranked. It went beyond being irritating to the point of being comical. Until we got the bill of course, at that point the joke was on us.
My advice about this place would be to avoid at all costs, unless you have a masochistic need to spend hours and a ton of money on terrible food and service.
You’d be better off to go hungry than to eat here.

A bit surprised by some negative reviews. Yes, it is in W Hotel, and yes, it is better for business lunch. Yes, service can be slow and hit or miss. And food is somewhay overpriced. However, they have small vut pretty good variety of entrees, salads, and appetizers, includung vegetarian. This time around, during business lunch, enjoyed shrimp wrap with truffle fries. Quite satisfying, and yes, not really revolutionary.

Um, no. What is this… Amateur hour? Apparently so. If it wasn’t for work and it being friggin freezing outside and snowing (and as a Portland native, we freak out when there’s snow, we just don’t know what to do with it besides close down the city like it’s the apocalypse and go snowboarding up in the mountains but alas, there are no mountains here so I was busy freaking out on the inside like a good corporate robot and I’m asian. Asians don’t freak out and cry openly. Remember those blank stares your parents gave when you started crying as children, fellow Asians? No hugs until you shut that down quick before you shame your family and get a hard smack across the face for crying. Yes, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Zip that shit up like you’re dead on the inside or until you become a doctor or engineer of some sort. Pharmacist will do too. Corporate robot is acceptable but only if you’re a manager type. Lower or mid level. Meh.) I woulda walked it or cabbed it over across the bridge for something much better but nooooo I thought I’d mix it up and stay put and warm and have dinner at the W after a tough meeting here. Mediocre at best and it’s crickets here after 8. Really depressing after awhile but I could have overlooked that if only the food was good and comforting. The worse offense was that the poached egg in my dish was overcooked! Waah. I thought about sending it back but I just wanted to be done with it all instead of spending another minute in this restaurant. Being average at best and over cooking it all? Hell no. The peninsula or langham this is not, I guess I should have not been so surprised cuz it is a W hotel which specializes in mediocrity … Total snooze fest of a restaurant with dated music and décor and then the service at the bar is atrocious. The wait staff was great but the bartender: just quit your job already woman and go to where you really belong, a dive bar.
This place is perfect to bring the people you really hate or about to sever ties with. A place where you take your boss for lunch and exclaim to them you’re quitting them and they’re on their own now. It will say a lot more than some resignation letter. Shitty meal AND shitty news– that’s the best. It would be extremely insulting as a thank you lunch, business lunch, date lunch, celebration dinner, etc. More like a thanks a lot for doing a shitty job you miserable bitch lunch. Surprised by the negative reviews? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Does anyone have standards anymore? Are we in Indiana? It’s «swank» if we were living in the 80’s or early 90’s of some small town. Or a third world country not worthy of resorts. Might as well bring them to Potbelly’s. Or over to pierogi heaven on wells. Next!

Where to begin? How about with the plastic chunk mixed in with our calamari appetizer? Or the $ 18 quinoa entrée that was presented on a huge plate containing a pile of quinoa that could not have been more than a cup like a lonely little island of bland sadness? Or the far-​from ripe mango in the shrimp wrap?
Took a good half hour for food to arrive, service was attentive once the food did come out, but all in all not somewhere I could consider taking clients ever again.

Came here on a very slow night. I was the only customer. I was treated as a celebrity. Food was excellent and the service was great! Had the soup of the day followed by bass and bread pudding.

This is the typical place where you take business clients and go with co-​workers. Nice environment, standard American food. Nothing revolutionary. Overpriced burgers but they compensate somewhat by offering truffle fries… I still think In-N-Out’s $ 2.10 burgers beat their sandwich/​burgers ($ 15 – 16) without question.
While I wasn’t WOWed by my meal, I must say the whole experience was alright. I liked the sleek décor but I’m someone who’d much rather have good food (even if it’s cheap) for the experience than eat at somewhere without anything new to offer.

This is the kind of restaurant you wish on someone you very much dislike. Six of us came here for a business lunch expecting to be out the door in an hour or so. No one came to get our drink orders until 10 mins into being seated. We then waited another 10 mins to order food. 45 mins after that, over an hour after arriving, we were finally served our somewhat cold and bland meals. I complained to both the manager and our waitress about the poor quality of service, which they both apologized for but offered no explanation of.
After we hurriedly scarfed down our food and collected the check, I did note that they had given us a 50% discount for the inconvenience. While that was nice of them to do, in the future I will opt to save myself and our associates the embarrassment of eating here in the first place.

Attended the Unilocal Elite event here. I thought they did a nice job overall. The service was outstanding, praise to the wait staff. I think they missed an opportunity to really wow the Elite crowd with their food though.
We sampled:
— Scallops: these were very good and perfectly prepared with a nice sear.
— Raspberry whiskey cocktail: Tried 3 of these, trying to find the Whiskey. I couldn’t taste any, which was disappointing. Perhaps they watered them down for the free event, but now I don’t want to spend the $ 14 to try one and find out.
— Lemon Elderberry cocktail: We liked these. Very refreshing, light, and mixed well.
— Nutella Banana mousse dessert: Very nice. Elegantly presented. Tasted fantastic.
— Fruit mousse dessert (didn’t catch the name or exactly what was in it). Did not enjoy this at all. Seemed like the flavors and textures fought with each other. Tasted like a gummy bear floating in unflavored mousse.
There were no vegetarian items presented at the tasting. Another missed opportunity in my opinion, obviously because I’m vegetarian and feel there’s a large audience here to be catered to.
I appreciate their efforts, but I personally won’t be back. At these prices, the items should not be hit and miss.

Initially, I wanted to give IPO 3 stars based on the food alone, but I bumped it to 4 stars due to the excellent service we were given. My friend and I went to the Unilocal event earlier in the night and decided to stay for dinner. We shared the beef short ribs, halibut, and mac & cheese. Everything was good and pretty much as we expected. For cocktails (courtesy of Greg, the manager), I got the Metropolitan (which I loved) and my friend got the Champagne Mojito (which she loved as well). Both Gregs, manager and server, were very nice, attentive, and knowledgeable.
All around, a very good experience.